DEL MAR: New train-crossing horn to start blasting this week

It's going to get louder before it gets quieter in Del Mar, as rail officials test the region's first wayside train horn this week.

Starting Monday and continuing through Thursday, the horns ---- attached to the railroad crossing poles at Coast Boulevard ---- will blast every time a train approaches.

Justin Fornelli, chief rail engineer for the North County Transit District, said the double blast is necessary to test the installation of the new horns and to train rail engineers.

"We need to ensure that the system operates correctly, and we need to train the engineers on the trains to make sure they are comfortable," Fornelli said.

Assuming the training and testing go as planned, trains would quit blowing their warning horns on Friday. At that point, only the horns mounted at the crossing would blow when a train approaches.

Those crossing horns are expected to be much less bothersome to the surrounding community than the ones the trains use. The new horns are tightly focused on Coast Boulevard itself so noise won't travel as far in the surrounding areas.

Del Mar residents appear to believe the targeted horns are the solution to noisy train crossings. A citizens committee raised about $190,000 to get the system designed and installed, covering about half the project's $380,000 total cost.

Lee Stein and Hershell Price, the committee's co-chairs, stood Thursday at the Coast Boulevard crossing, listening as engineers calibrated the horns, making sure that they produced a full 96 decibels of noise 100 feet from the crossing.

After hearing the toots of their labor, both men sported wide grins.

"I think it's a home run. The community can live with this, I can tell you right now," Price said.

"It's sweet," Stein agreed.

But the horns are not the final solution for train noise in Del Mar. Engineers will still be able to blow their warning horns if they perceive an emergency, like a pedestrian too close to or on the tracks.

Since pedestrians are a common sight walking along Del Mar's tracks, especially south of 15th Street, where the bluff-top rail right-of-way offers stunning ocean views, there may still be a fair bit of blasting going on.

"The wayside horns will not have anything to do with that situation," Fornelli said.

Train noise has been a long-term nuisance for North County residents who live within earshot of the rails. Many communities have petitioned for quiet zones that are now allowed by federal rail regulations.

In order to create sections of rail where trains do not blow their warning horns, cities must install more robust gates, raised medians and other impediments to make it more difficult for cars and trains to come into calamitous contact.

But doing so can be quite expensive. The Orange County Transit Authority has been an early pioneer in quiet zone creation, spending $85 million to upgrade 52 crossings. However, an OCTA official said in May that the average cost of upgrading a crossing was $1.8 million.

When judged by that yardstick, the $380,000 Del Mar and the NCTD spent on installing wayside horns was positively cheap.

But Fornelli warned that pole-mounted stationary horns may not be the best solution for every location. Del Mar's only railroad crossing at Coast Boulevard is relatively far from homes and businesses. In areas where development is packed closer to a crossing, Fornelli said, the horns may be less palatable.

"This is a demonstration project, and we will be working with the city to study how well the community accepts it," Fornelli said.